


to lay their gold around my feet

by tinyjunk



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, also this is my first published work on ao3, for now, i just love the strike team dynamics during the omnic crisis tho, jack & gabe are already gay together, no beta readers we die like men, super implied r76 from the beginning, theres no stopping this strike team centric train now bitch !!, this isnt very ship oriented, torbjorn mentions his soon-to-be wife, yes i hate torb but for the sake of the strike team i dont
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyjunk/pseuds/tinyjunk
Summary: Omnic Crisis era fic revolving around the five members of the strike team that paved the way for the formation of Overwatch.





	to lay their gold around my feet

**Author's Note:**

> okay so this is my very first published work on AO3 and i’m super excited to continue working on this fic! i hope you enjoy this short chapter, as i didn’t want to make it too heavy right off the bat.  
> find me on tumblr as juuunkers !

“Sit still a minute, Morrison, will you?” Amari darted her eyes toward the blond man sitting at her feet. She was currently cleaning out a cut on his hairline and sewing him back together with the likeness of some sort of human sewing machine. Her level of skill alone was enough to make Morrison nervous. However, anything less from her would be sorely disappointing.

Ana was a woman of considerable stature, with sweeping, oil-slick black hair and mischievous eyes. She was as kind as she was perceptive, and expected nothing but excellence from her teammates and, boy, did she let them know it. After spending almost four years in hell with four other soldiers, she pretty much considered them family and wasn’t afraid to demonstrate her love. Not that any of them minded, though. In such a gritty, harsh reality, it was nice to have Ana’s tender mannerisms as an anchor to remind them of the reality they were all striving for.

“Next time, try not to sprint into a metal pole.” Amari snapped the thread deftly before patting his shoulder to send him off. Their resident golden boy was as good as new thanks to her. “You boys spend a year getting pumped full of experimental medicine and you suddenly think you’re indestructible.” She broke into an easy grin as she hopped up from her place on her cot.

The small church they were holed up in had been gutted and refurbished, reinforced with thicker walls and bulletproof windows specifically to use as a sort of makeshift base. It had just barely enough room to hold all of their supplies and beds comfortably, with only extra space for a small table in the middle of their chaos of boxes and wires. This place, like countless other gutted and refurbished places before, had shared the title of ‘home’ for the five soldiers. Last time, it had been the ruins of a mosque. The Omnic Crisis had not been very kind to them, or humanity in general.

“What do you expect, Ana, we’re Americans.” From behind a giant monitor came the teasing voice of her commander. He was an enviously built man, with broad shoulders and legs for days. His almost infuriatingly handsome face was bathed in bright orange light, warping the form of his high cheekbones and arched brows. Standing at over six feet, he was an incredibly intimidating man and an immovable figure for his four subordinates. Despite the harsh lines of his face, he had a kind smile and a soft heart, surprising everyone with his unshakable courage and unending passion for saving lives. Quite cheesy, the man was.

“Sorry, Ana,” Jack, with his shining gold hair and nervous smiles, popped up from the floor and gave a sheepish look to his medic. He was around the same height as their commander, but about ten times as pale and three times more socially anxious. Despite his awkwardness, Jack was a friendly and skilled soldier, capable of holding his own in whatever situation one stuck him in. “You saw that omnic coming right for me though, right? It was about to tear me a new one. Don’t wanna risk shredding some new pants just yet.” He swerved around the older woman and picked up his bottle of water before making a beeline to where his CO was sitting. Jack quietly offered him a sip of his drink, and promptly downed the whole thing when his offer was declined.

“She’s the one who warned you, dummy. Clean out your ears, Morrison, you’re overdue for a shower anyways.” This snarky remark came from their engineer, a stout blond Swede who was well known for ripping on his teammates whenever the opportunity arose. He was a clean shaven and presentable man, who made up for his small stature with brains and a dagger-sharp tongue. “Maybe then you’ll learn to listen to your lookout and _not_ run into a horde of tin cans.” Torbjorn was honest, if anything, but his quick witted responses were not out of malice, and he loved his team like they were family.

Jack threw his empty bottle of water towards the man with deadly accuracy, and it would have hit home on Torbjorn’s forehead had it not been for Ana’s interception. “Oof,” Gabriel peered over the monitor to observe just how close Jack had gotten. ”Close, Jackie boy, but you know how fast Ana is. Still tied, two for two.” Jack only shrugged, “Worth a shot.”

Last year, the strike team had adopted a little game wherein the goal was to hit someone in the forehead with a water bottle to earn a point for one’s team. It was silly, yes, but no one wanted to mope and whine in a constant puddle of omnic oils when they could pretend to be okay for a couple minutes out of the day. They had reset the score on January 1st earlier that year and both teams were hard pressed to win after last years disappointing tie of fifteen to fifteen. Naturally, as the only two super soldiers, Jack and Gabriel had paired up while the other three stuck together. “It would only be fair,” Gabriel had said, “After all we are so much better than you,” Gabriel had teased, right before Ana landed her team the first point of the game.

“A man is trying to sleep over here,” The unmistakable voice of a sleepy German crusader nearly enveloped the whole church. “A man of my age can’t afford to stay up late like you all.” His voice was tinged with playful pseudo-superiority. Reinhardt turned over in his bed, which had since been replaced from a cot to an actual mattress, comfortable, but thinner than he would like.

“You’re not even thirty, you great oaf!” Torbjorn nudged at the large man, the largest of the five, until he opened his eyes. Reinhardt was a youthful man, cocky and optimistic with a heart that rivaled the size of his ego. He had close cropped blond hair and an award winning smile that gave him a free pass to being so confident. If you thought Gabriel was a sizable man, even he looked tiny next to Reinhardt, who was nearly half a foot taller than him, even without his great, hulking armor. He sat up in his bed, seemingly shrinking the size of the already tiny church. If Reinhardt were to jump with his arm raised above his head, he could easily touch the ceiling.

“I am older than all of you, however,” Reinhardt caught the water bottle that Ana had thrown him with ease, turning it in his hands for a moment to look for the telltale scribble of his name on the label before unscrewing the cap and taking a long sip of it. “Three months is three months,” Reinhardt chuckled when Ana gave him a scathing glare. It was actually two and a half months, and Ana was very defensive of those extra two weeks, thank you very much.

“Okay, viejo, whatever you say.” Gabriel had slumped back in his seat with Jack at his side, the two men scanning the large screen in front of them almost lazily. They looked almost domestic, with how close they were sitting and the way they seemed to be leaning into each other. It wasn’t odd these days to see this kind of intimacy between them all, really. All five of them had grown incredibly close and that meant there was enough affection between them to make even the most dense man question the exact nature of their relationship with one another. Not that there was anything there to see in the first place. The fact that they were so comfortable with one another meant nothing but how easily the five had bonded and how steadfast their relationship had held these past years despite the turbulence of the Omnic Crisis.

Gabriel, who was almost ready to get some quick shut eye right then and there, suddenly muttered something to Jack, who straightened up a bit and leaned closer to the screen. His blue eyes darted back and forth across the map displayed there for a good three seconds before widening in understanding.

“What is it, Jack?” Ana was the first to speak up, her ever watching eyes were looking everywhere all at once, and especially not missing anything from her boys. She pushed off the wall and strode up to the small set of stairs leading up to the computers with Reinhardt and Torbjorn close behind. They all huddled around the monitor, squeezing together tight as possible so they could all get a good view.

“Ah,” she murmured without even needing an explanation. Leave it to Ana Amari to figure out what was going on before it was even happening. “So that must be,” she turned to look at Gabriel hesitantly. “Where the omnium is.” Torbjorn finished for her without missing a beat.

“The pattern was almost sporadic initially, but mapping all the points where omnics were detected over the last few months makes it like a giant bullseye of the city.” Jack explained, his gaze moving to Gabriel for the smallest of moments before continuing. “The omnics fried the grid here so bad even satellites weren’t able to get a good picture, much less actually spot where the omnium was.” His hands grazed across the monitor fluidly and the picture suddenly changed. “The fires are raging on the East and Southeast sides of the city, but that’s also where the omnium is.” The new picture revealed almost a perfect set of purple circles around one single area, tinged red and black, perfectly diagonal from where a tiny green triangle sat at the Northwestern outskirts of the desolate city.

“We have to circle around the city and hit the omnium from behind, through the fires, we’ve got no other choice.” Gabriel finally said, crossing his arms over his broad chest. His tone was hard, eyes severe and sharper than obsidian. “The fires will certainly be a problem but there's been no signs of omnics there by our drones. It’s a straight shot, but any mistake could prove fatal to the whole team.” His warnings were morbid, but not without reason. Everyday they spent on the frontlines was another gamble for their lives. All five of them were living on borrowed time at this point and they knew it.

“We’ll hit it early on Wednesday, send some more drones out tomorrow and camp out the night there. We’ve already got what we need,” For this he turned his sights to Jack, who only made fleeting eye contact with him. “We’ll set out on foot in a couple hours, so get some rest.” Gabriel didn’t need to speak again before the other three strike team members dispersed. The lights went out in under five seconds, leaving the two super soldiers bathed in the unsettling bluelight of computer screens.

Jack looked up at Gabriel, who had risen to his feet sometime in the middle of debriefing. “I hate going out with such limited information.” His voice was strained, but quiet for the sake of his teammates. He reached out to grab Gabriel’s hand, who offered himself up, palm down, without so much as blinking. Jack took hold of his calloused hand and guided his commanding officer to sit in front of him. His face looked starstruck in the light as he watched Gabriel drown in the orange glow around them.

“I know,” Gabriel’s response came even softer. He squeezed Jack’s hand and crowded into his space until the line of his brows found sanctuary in the junction of Jack’s neck and shoulder. “There’s nothing I can do, it’s all we have.” His voice, muffled, was a welcomed vibration against the blond’s chest. It was soothing, edging out the tension and anxiety in Jack’s muscles even if just for a little while. “Command said it would take a miracle to find out where they built the new omnium, but, fuck, we did it.” Gabriel almost smiled. When Jack’s wandering hands found their way around his neck and settled there, he did.

They stayed like that for while, a silent beacon of warmth in the yawning night, steady and everlasting, until they caught themselves dozing off and decided it was late enough for them to finally sleep comfortably. The Omnic Crisis had not been kind to them.

The last thing either of them heard was an echoing ‘goodnight’ bouncing off the skeleton of the church.

**Author's Note:**

> comments & criticism are welcomed, since i’m always looking to improve my writing however i can. i apologize, again, for the shortness of this chapter but i promise they will be longer in the future (aka chapter 2)


End file.
